Bills’ season blows away with loss to Patriots

The wind whipped and howled so much it tilted the goal posts, but the Buffalo Bills’ season meekly came to a close with an all too familiar final record.

Wind gusts of 55 miles per hour wreaked havoc for both teams, especially the kickers, but in the end, Matt Cassel and the New England Patriots made enough plays to win, while the Bills once again did just enough to lose, 13-0, Sunday afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Buffalo, which won its first four games of the season and stood atop the AFC?East at 5-1 following a Week 7 win over San?Diego, lost eight of its final 10 and finished 7-9 for the third straight season. For head coach Dick Jauron, this is the fourth straight season he guided a team to a 7-9 record dating back to his time as coach of the Chicago Bears.

“A disappointing end to what turned out to be a disappointing season,” said Jauron.

The coach’s future will be determined during team meeting over the next 10-14 days, but Jauron reportedly signed a three-year extension earlier this season, something the team, nor Jauron himself, has confirmed.

“I’ve been concerned about my future all my life,”?Jauron said. “It’s no different than any other time.”

As for New England, they needed to win and get help in order to make the playoffs, but despite doing their part, they become the first team since Denver in 1985 to win 11 games and miss the postseason.

“There’s really no more that we could do than what we did,”?said New England head coach Bill Belichick.

The Miami Dolphins, who finished 1-15 last season, beat the New York Jets at Giants Stadium Sunday to win the AFC?East, while the Baltimore Ravens, a season after finished 4-12, knocked off Jacksonville to finish 11-5 and snatch the final wild card slot by virtue of a better conference record than New England. Miami will host Baltimore next weekend in the wild card round.

The Patriots’ season took a turn eight minutes into Week 1 when quarterback Tom Brady was lost for the season with a knee injury, setting the stage for Matt Cassel, who had not played in a regular season football game of any kind since high school. Cassel, a free agent after this season, did a very admirable job, guiding the Patriots to another double-digit win season, but fell short in a highly competitive AFC.

New England placed a total of 14 players on season-ending injured reserve this season, but closed with a four-game winning streak, won its 12th December game in a row and 11th straight overall against the Bills.

The Patriots made the most of few offensive opportunities in the swirling winds, as their final statistics read more like a high school game. Sammy Morris carried 24 times for 85 yards and LaMont Jordan had 64 yards on 20 carries, including the only touchdown of the game — a 2-yard dive late in the third to make it 10-0.

In all, New England ran the ball 47 times for 168 yards and threw it only eight times for 78 yards. However, among those eight pass attempts, Cassel completed six of them and almost all of them came at key times.

First, on 4th and 5 at the Bills’ 14, Cassel connected with Wes Welker for 12 yards, one play ahead of Jordan’s touchdown, then found Welker on the next possession for 14 yards on a third down conversion to help set up a Stephen Gostkowski 23-yard field goal to cap a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ate up nearly eight minutes off the clock.

“We played a little different style than we played the last few weeks,” said Cassel.

The Bills had plenty of success on the ground themselves, led by Fred Jackson’s 136 yards — a season-high for Buffalo running backs — but let several scoring chances blow away — pun intended.

In one of the more bizarre sequences, the Bills failed to get a field goal attempt away at the end of the first half when they were out of timeouts with 22 seconds left and facing a 3rd and 5 from the New England 12-yard line. Jackson gained three yards and the Bills’ field goal unit rushed on the field.

However, a shoving match ensued between Buffalo tight end Derek Schouman and center Duke Preston with a few Patriots and the clock ran out with the Patriots still leading 3-0.

“It was a bunch of chaos,”?Jackson said. “There was some things going on that I think the refs missed.”

Although, following the game, referee Gene Steratore said umpire Jeff Rice spotted the ball with nine seconds to go.

As for the scrum near the goal line, Jackson thought it might have been pre-meditated.

“It was definitely part of what they wanted to do,”?Jackson said. “It was something where we have to be smarter than that.”

Jauron said the team practices getting on the field quickly without timeouts to kick a field goal and thought the Bills had plenty of time to run on the field and get the attempt off before time expired.

“They (referees) never gave us the ball to kick it,”?Jauron said.

That strange close to the first half only added to the frustration of the day and the season for the Bills, who miss the postseason for the ninth straight season.

“We started off fast, but we need to learn how to finish it off,” said Buffalo wide receiver Josh Reed.

New England defensive end Jarvis Green picked up his first two sacks of the season, including a forced fumble on Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards in the third that set up the only touchdown of the game.

The Bills did not throw a pass until the second quarter, as neither team attempted a pass with the wind at their faces until Cassel’s completion to Welker late in the third ahead of the Jordan score.

“This is really one of those games where you want to force them to stop you from running the ball,” said Belichick.

In the second quarter, the game had to be delayed for two minutes to realign the goal posts, but Gostkowski still missed his 27-yard attempt when the ball whirled around the right post and fell short, as if someone knocked it down in mid-air.

Bills’ kicker Rian Lindell missed a 47-yard try with the wind at his back, but swirling from left to right.

“That was the worst,”?Lindell said. “When they have to fix the uprights ... that’s got to be the worst.”

Notebook:?Portville resident Alexa Campbell, 15, sang the National Anthem for third time and first time as a soloist ... Buffalo played without four starters — RB Marshawn Lynch (shoulder), CB Jabari Greer (knee), LT Jason Peters (knee), WR/PR Roscoe Parrish (knee) ... New England DE Richard Seymour (back) missed his first game of the season and LB Tedy Bruschi (knee) also did not play ... Buffalo WR Lee Evans caught five passes for 63 yards, surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for the second time in his career ... Jackson finished the season with 571 yards, giving the Bills a 1,000-yard rusher (Lynch — 1,036) and a 500-yard rusher for the first time since 1996, when Thurman Thomas (1,033 yards) and Darick Holmes (571 yards) accomplished the feat.